The Portland Trail Blazers have unexpectedly won eight of their past nine games. Portland looks like a completely different team than the one that started the 2024-25 season. They are finding ways to get it done despite being the second-youngest team in the NBA.
Defensively, Portland's length and athleticism are giving teams trouble. Offensively, they are getting contributions from various players, as their balanced roster is making up for their lack of star power.
There's no denying that Chauncey Billups has the Blazers playing much better basketball. But are they playing too well?
Blazers risk getting stuck in no man's land if they don’t trade their veterans
The Blazers are playing their most exciting basketball of the past two seasons. Because of that, their long-term outlook as a rebuilding team can easily get overlooked. There are certainly promising takeaways from their hot stretch. For instance, Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija are proving to be building blocks on the wing, while Scoot Henderson has drastically improved in key areas, most notably his shooting and playmaking.
But at the same time, the Blazers are winning thanks to contributions from players who likely won't be part of their eventual playoff roster. Deandre Ayton is coming off arguably his best game as a Blazer, recording 25 points and 20 rebounds in a thrilling OT win over his former team. Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons have been inconsistent throughout the season, but they are still impactful in stretches and contribute to wins overall.
Currently, the Blazers are 21-29, which is tied with the Chicago Bulls for the eighth-worst record in the league. If the season ended today, that would mean less than a six percent of landing Cooper Flagg.
One could make the case that trading Portland's veterans won't significantly worsen their win percentage because their young core is playing so well.
Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report recently made that point, writing, "You can say it's a bad thing that they're weakening their odds of landing Cooper Flagg. I would counter that they can't lose that much anymore because Henderson, Avdija, and Toumani Camara have gotten too good, and those are the players they hope will be linchpins the next time they truly enter a season with the goal of making the playoffs."
If Joe Cronin managed to trade away key veterans and Portland had a starting lineup of Henderson, Sharpe, Camara, Avdija, and Donovan Clingan, that would still have plenty of talent and likely prevent them from being a bottom-three team in the league, which is what is required to have the 14 percent chance of landing Flagg.
But they would still lose several more games with an inexperienced team. The margin of error with that group would be much smaller. The inexperience would lead to growing pains, causing them to lose more of those toss-up games like their recent win over Phoenix.
Cronin needs to trade players like Grant, Simons, and Ayton (if possible) to clear the path for the Blazers' young core. Even if they don't land the No. 1 overall pick, their chances of being in the top four are only a measly 23 percent as of now.
That's not a good approach for a team that still doesn't have a clear-cut star and is a smaller market that doesn't attract many free agents. Not only is the 2025 draft class projected to be strong, but it's also only going to be more difficult in the coming seasons to land a top pick as this young core continues to develop.
Grant, Simons, and Ayton all exceeded 40 minutes in their game against Phoenix. Sure, it went into overtime, but that's still over 120 minutes that Billups could assign to players that better fit the Blazers' timeline. Their past three top-ten picks combined for just 51 minutes. Sharpe and Henderson hovered around 20 minutes each while Clingan played 10.
The shortened bench rotation has been working, but it's also taking away opportunities for Portland to see what they have in up-and-coming players like Kris Murray and Rayan Rupert.
We're not trying to take away from how well the Blazers have been playing lately. They've been fun to watch, and Billups deserves credit for turning things around lately. The concern is that Cronin is leading this team to long-term mediocrity. Hopefully, Portland will address this by the Feb. 6 deadline.